“Through Kurt I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that’s stripped down.”

Rock stars are like sports stars: If you snap your ankle, you’re done.

To me the most important thing is getting into a studio and making an album that is 12 or 14 amazing songs, getting up onstage, and making people happy by livening the rock.

When I joined Nirvana, I was the fifth or sixth drummer – I don’t know if they’d ever had a drummer they were totally happy with. And they were strangers. There was never much of a deeper connection outside of the music.

I love to play music. So why endanger that with something like drugs?

People are so into digital recording now they forgot how easy analog recording can be.

If you play a Nickleback song backwards you’ll hear messages from the devil. Even worse, if you play it forwards you’ll hear Nickleback.

Guilt is cancer. Guilt will confine you, torture you, destroy you as an artist. It’s a black wall. It’s a thief.

We only do what feels right. If something feels forced or contrived, then we pull back. We remain the Foo Fighters.

From one generation to the next, The Beatles will remain the most important rock band of all time.

It’s not until recently that I could even imagine myself as an adult. But these kids today, they look at me like I’m Neil Young. Nirvana is the band their parents listen to.

I was ready to quit music. It felt to me like music equalled death.

Wow, I get to wake up again? Ok. You have to make good with what you’ve got.

Your personal history is a part of what happens with your hands and your head as you play music.

The most important thing for me is my family, and my health and happiness, and making sure everyone’s cool.

Never lose faith in real rock and roll music. Never lose faith in that. You might have to look a little harder, but it’s always going to be there.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.